When I was a child, every day at dusk without fail, you could hear the neighborhood kids whispering in a small voice “Let’s hurry up and go home because the ghosts are coming!
I heard it for the first time from my older sister, as we played in the alleyway with her friend. The sun was starting to sink behind the horizon when my sister looked at me with unease grabbing my arm as she said, “Let’s hurry up and go home.”
“What- Why? But I still want to play!” I complained.
“We can play tomorrow! Now, let’s go home! Because dusk is the easiest time for ghosts to enter this world!” She scolded me.
“Ghosts…?” I thought maybe my sister had gone crazy.
It was at that time, that I noticed the retreating forms of the other neighborhood kids. Without saying “goodbye” they entered their houses, and closed their doors.
“Huh? Maybe our parents are tricking us so that we go home earlier.” I couldn’t help but think. However, it seemed that everyone really believed that dusk brought ghosts.
“There must be some explanation! Maybe the light is playing tricks on us, or the maybe shadows are mixing just a little too much with the light!” I thought. But at the same time, I wondered if it was true.
I lived in that town until I graduated from college. Even to this day, the neighborhood kids can be heard saying “Hurry up and go home! The ghosts come at dusk!” But, even when I had waited until it had become night, I had never seen a ghost in the streets outside.
(~に)寄る(よる)To drop in, stop by somewhere for a quick visit (among various other meanings and compound words).
–>私は帰宅の途中で彼の家に寄るつもりです。I’m going to drop in at his house on my way home (you probably wouldn’t use 立ち寄るhere because it is a planned future visit).
(~に)立ち寄る(たちよる)To drop in, stop by somewhere for a quick visit (“I dropped by the bookstore to pick up a book,” not “….to do some research”). Compared to 寄る, (1) has a stronger feeling of being unplanned or by coincidence, and (2) can be used to mean “just to look” rather than actually buy a coffee or check out a book (etc.)
–>彼は外出するたびに、その本屋に立ち寄る。Every time he goes out, he drops in at the bookstore.
寄り道(よりみち)(を)する To make a detour on the way (often on the way home), to make a detour. At first it looked a bit like 立ち寄るto me but after some reading is clearly pretty distinct: 立ち寄り is to drop by a specified place, 寄り道 is to make a detour but none of the sentences I found even mentioned a place, only that they were going “somewhere” instead of directly to their destination (which is why I didn’t specify the particle—there is never an object as far as I could tell).
–>寄り道しないで、家にまっすぐ帰りなさい。Don’t stop by somewhere, come straight home.
(person を) / (place に) 訪ねる(たずねる) To visit. Used for when a person visits another person or a place, usually with a purpose. Subject (the visitor) has to be a person. Object (the visitee) can be a person or place. One post I read said that place objects take the particle に but many sentences use を with(だれか)の家 ・~のところ.
(~を・に)訪れる(おとずれる)To visit, or to arrive for more abstract things such as a certain season, an opportunity or, say, death. More passive, less purposeful than 訪ねる. Subject (visitor) can be either a person or thing. Object (visitee) is optional.
–>死はすべての人に訪れる Death comes to all men.
(~を・に)訪問(ほうもん)する To visit or call on. More formal, usually a visit for work such as a doctor making home visits. Object is often a place or building.
(~に)伺う(うかがう)To visit or call on (humble speech). Can also mean “listen to” or “ask for” in which case the object (what you’re asking for—a reason for something or an order at a restaurant, for example) take the particle を. You might hear the staff at a restaurant say “伺いします” when they come to take your order.
A transitive verb is when a subject acts on an object, whereas an intransitive verb is when a subject acts on its own with no object
I run a company. (Transitive)
The company runs efficiently. (Intransitive)
They arrived late. (Intransitive)
She opened the book. (Transitive)
Since since intransitive verbs don’t act on an object they aren’t used with the direct object marker を
・However since Japanese often omits things, the lack of an を doesn’t inherently mean that the verb is intransitive. To check if a verb is being used as a transitive in English you can ask yourself ask ‘what?’ for Japanese the answer may not always be clear.
I run a company. → what do I run? → a company = transitive.
The company runs efficiently. → what does the company run? → no object = intransitive
私が遊んだ → What did I play? The sentence doesn’t say because the verb is intransitive and can’t take the an object.
私が買った → what did I buy? The sentence doesn’t specify even though the verb is transitive and can have an object.
・Although there are no hard and fast rules there are some ways to guess at if a Japanese verb is transitive or not as long as you know it’s dictionary form.
Verbs that have dictionary forms ending in an ある sound are mostly intransitive (if you change the ある to an える you will often get their transitive counterpart)
止まる → 止める
変わる → 変える
始まる → 始める
Dictionary forms that end in れる are often intransitive
流れる
壊れる
A common exception to this one is いれる
Dictionary forms that end in す are usually transitive
流す
壊す
Some verbs can be used as both
風が吹く (intransitive)
笛を吹く (transitive)
閉じる
運ぶ
触れる
増やす
巻く
持つ
結ぶ
・While intransitive verbs can’t use the object marker を sometimes the particle を marks an area that is being traversed and in such cases an intransitive verbs can appear with an を
空を飛ぶ ‘fly through the sky’
道を歩く ‘wall along the path’
In these cases を isn’t marking 空 or 道 as direct objects but rather it’s marking them as the area though which the verb is taking place.
Last time, you learned how to express past tense and perfect present tense like “昨日ケーキを食べました (I ate cake yesterday)” and “さっきケーキを食べました (I have eaten cake just now).” In this lesson, we would like to focus on one of the special functions of the ta-form: to be treated as an adjective.
verb suffix indicating hatred and contempt, or disdain for another’s actions
*contains curse words*
-masu stem of verb
ex.)
食べる→食べやがる
する→しやがる
来る→来やがる
例文:
あいつは話の途中で電話を切りやがった。
あいつははなしのとちゅうででんわをきりやがった。
Bastard hung up on me,
あいつはどこへ行きやがった。
Where did that bastard go?
*Keep in mind あいつ means “he, she, that guy”. When translating from Japanese to English translations will probably be like this to try to express the contempt as one would in English. You will see this with other example sentences.*
more -masu stem of verb example sentences:
こいつ、さっきまで俺の相棒だったのに、もう寝返りやがった。
こいつ、さっきまでおれのあいぼうだったのに、もうねがえりやがった。
This rat, up until now he was my partner and now he’s gone and turned on me.
間違うことを恐れるなよ。日本語で喋ってみろって。やってみろよ。君ならできると思うよ。
まちがうことをおそれるなよ。にほんごでしゃべってみろって。やってみろよ。きみならできるとおもうよ。
Machigau koto o osoreru na yo. Nihongo de shabette mirotte. Yattemiro yo. Kimi nara dekiru to omou yo.
Don’t be afraid of making mistakes. Speak in Japanese. Give it a shot. I think you can do it.